SPECIAL ABILITIES

Abyssal Torment (Su)

An apocalypse locust’s sting is designed to torment its victims with wracking pain. A victim of the creature’s venomous sting also takes a –4 penalty on attack rolls, skill checks, and ability checks. The effects of abyssal torment last until the sting’s poison is cured.

Accursed Brand (Su)

Whenever a victim fails its save against an apocalypse locust’s breath weapon, the unholy fire burns an accursed brand into his flesh. For the next 24 hours, the branded victim is subjected to auditory hallucinations of foul desires and sinful deeds. The hallucinations cause lawful and good victims to become tainted; good-aligned clerics, druids, paladins, and even lawfulmonks are treated as though they’ve temporarily broken their codes of conduct. Any character marked by the accursed brand who has a class that’s restricted to a good alignment or lawfulalignment is treated as an ex-member of that class for 24 hours; an atonement spell can end this effect.

Maddening Buzz (Su)

When three or more apocalypse locusts in a group simultaneously flap their wings, they create a loud buzzing sound capable of driving other creatures mad. Any creature within a range of 100 feet + 10 additional feet per locust must succeed at a DC 15 Will save or go mad as if affected by a confusion spell (caster level equal to the locusts’ CR plus the number of locusts present). This is a sonic mind-affecting effect. The DC for the save is Charisma-based.

ECOLOGY

Apocalypse locusts are damned humans twisted and fused into the form of massive, fiendish insects. They delight in torturing living creatures, drawing out the torment for as long as possible. Though these creatures have average intelligence, they are consumed by hatred and eternal pain, and therefore lack any kind of empathy or sanity. Apocalypse locusts particularly enjoy watching holy warriors suffer their hallucinatory stings.